Bookshelf Organization

After my mini-rant against color-coding bookshelves last week, you guys had the best responses.

The first thing I’d like to say, is that you’ve convinced me it’s normal for people to feel very particular about their bookshelves.

A little tip for you: Don’t ever “help” a booklover by organizing/rearranging/moving their book collection while they’re sick, travling, or in the hospital.

It will not be appreciated.

The second thing is that there are a LOT of ways to organize bookshelves.

The vast majority of you organize by some combination of genre and author, which is what I do as well.

But then there are some other trends:

HEIGHT:

This one surprised me.

“I organize my books by authors, then size.” – Kitty

“I admit to organizing my closet by color but I’d never do my books like that…I do however organize them by height” -Cheryl

A large number of you separate paperback and hardback books onto their own shelves

At least it surprised me until I realized how much I hate when that one poor skinny paperback is sandwiched between two heavy-enough-to-stop-a-charging-rhino tomes and lost forever.

WIDTH:

“I have sorted my books by height before . . . and they’re currently sorted by page count.” -Denae

Hmm. I’m not sure I’m sold on this one, Denae. It’s got my brain all in a tizzy of where I’d put what.

FAVS:

“I put the series together and then based on my favorites and interests.” -Alena

I love this idea. I think my favorite books should all be friends. I think Elizabeth Bennet and Lucy Pevensie would adore each other.

UNREAD:

“The bottom rows…are for unread books” – Kerstin

This is a really good idea. Actually, I should keep a shelf for library books. Then they wouldn’t get buried under my daughter’s books on the side table and I might remember to read them before they’re due…

DESPERATION:

Books are organized by Author, then Series and finally by “Where can I squeeze this one in?” -Grumpylo

The struggle is real. (And Grumpylo earns an extra point for the best name.)

Thanks for all the cool pictures of your bookshelves and letting me into the madness of your minds where book organization lives!

Did I miss any good organization methods?

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Comments

I’m not sure exactly what my method is…Always by author and then series (and usually genre). I usually keep the series in order. But sometimes, if the series is a combo of hard cover and paperback, I just can’t have them sitting so unevenly (by size like that), so hardcover first and then paperback. And, the heaviest series’ go on the bottom shelves to keep weight distributed in a way that will keep the shelf from tipping. My favorite books/authors usually go together because those are the shelves I spend the most time browsing.

I do pretty much the same thing although I have ‘general knowledge and text books on bottom shelf as they are generally the ‘heaviest’ (in weight and reading)I have the ‘humorous’ books on shelf at eye level, sometimes you just need a laugh.Hardbacks and paperbacks do end up ‘together’ when in a series but usually all the paperbacks together so they are at same height. A few years ago someone ‘helped’ move bookcases while I was at work, I still don’t have everything arranged as I like(mainly because stepdaughter moved back in after her divorce and brought a house worth’s of ‘stuff’ so I can’t easily reach many parts of ‘library’)

Maybe I shouldn’t write this, but I read almost exclusively ebooks since 2008…
So no arrangements are necessary anymore. I used to arrange my books by genre, SciFi/Fantasy and other fiction by author and series and non fiction by subject. The paper books I buy are mostly about cooking and they are stacked in the kitchen.

I really did not recognize any “order” with my books. Usually, they’re on the shelves after I’ve read them, and they would be in that order. Well, sort of. I looked and it appears I try to keep them in ‘genre’ order and yet, even that is haphazard at best.
E-books are on my reader in exactly the order they arrive and they depart to that nether world in basically that order.

I have mine in draws. They are clear plastic, three draws high. I sort by author then by series. I can see through each draw. And my cats cannot knock them off shelves. Keeps them dust free too. Thanks for letting me share.